CORD sets tone for Raila Odinga return with demand to Jubilee

Leaders in a solidarity show during a rally organised by CORD at Baba Dogo grounds in Nairobi Sunday.  [Photo: Moses Omusula/Standard]

Kenya: CORD leaders sustained their onslaught on the Jubilee government, as rallies to ratchet up the pressure hit the homestretch five days to the return of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

The CORD co-principal has been on a two-month study tour of the United States. The Opposition has promised to give Raila a hero’s welcome befitting his status as an elder statesman when he returns.

Opposition MPs demanded that President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto convene a ‘national dialogue conference’ to discuss perceived problems bedeviling the country and discuss reconstitution of the electoral body.

They also rejected reports that the opposition was working with Western powers to plot the downfall of the Jubilee government.

Opposition MPs kept up the pressure as Deputy President William Ruto said politicians should express their views responsibly without dividing Kenyans.

Mr Ruto said while politicians have the right to free speech, they should not use it to promote negative ethnicity.

“Every leader be it in government or opposition are entitled to speak about anything but we should realise that the bottom line is responsibility. We must safeguard the interest of the country,” Ruto said in Burnt Forest during a fundraiser in aid of 13 churches torched during 2007 post-election violence.

In Nairobi, days after Raila’s ODM, a partner in the coalition that includes Wiper and Ford Kenya parties, unveiled a stinging assessment of Jubilee’s performance a year into office, CORD MPs hammered away at the narrative all was not well.

Speakers cited insecurity, high cost of living and skewed public appointments as they addressed supporters at Baba Dogo grounds in Nairobi Sunday.

National dialogue

ODM nominated Senator Elizabeth Ongoro said President Uhuru Kenyatta had two weeks to call a national dialogue conference to address the ills affecting majority of Kenyans.

Ongoro claimed the Jubilee Government had failed to unite Kenyans as enshrined in the Constitution under article 10 and had instead, she alleged, embarked on a campaign to purge communities perceived to support opposition from Government.

“Kenyans are still watching but we would not want Kenya to go the way other countries like Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria went. The Jubilee Government must call for a national dialogue to address the problems facing Kenyans,” said Ongoro.

And CORD renewed calls to reconstitute the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

The opposition coalition maintained that it will not accept to go into the next General Election with the current team of electoral commissioners and demanded that it must be re-constituted through national dialogue.

National Assembly Deputy Minority Leader Jakoyo Midiwo claimed IEBC had mismanaged the last election and could not be trusted to referee another election.

“We will not go to another election with the current electoral commission in place. The commission must first be disbanded then re-constituted through national dialogue,” said Jakoyo.

Homa Bay Senator Otieno Kajwang alleged the IEBC had no capacity to referee a free and fair election.

The Issack Hassan-led commission, he claimed, cannot be trusted to run free, credible and fair elections.

“I want to tell you that IEBC has no capacity to referee any free, fair and credible general elections. We demand that the commission is disbanded and secretariat overhauled. It must also be constituted through a national dialogue,” said Kajwang.

Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale accused the Jubilee administration of kicking members of communities perceived to have voted for the opposition coalition from plum State jobs.

 Khalwale charged that the Uhuru-led Jubilee government had failed to live up to the expectations of the majority of the Kenyan people and should leave office and let fresh elections be conducted.

“A good government should give its people jobs and not sack them and replace all of them with people from a single community. It is now clear that Jubilee has failed in its mandate to unite people and create jobs. I am waiting for the National Assembly to bring that impeachment motion and I will ask Uhuru one, two three questions and he will be out,” said Khalwale. 

Siaya Senator James Orengo dismissed media reports that the Western nations were plotting the ouster of President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto.

Fail to deliver

“President Uhuru Kenyatta will impeach himself because he has failed to deliver on what Kenyans wants him to do. Western Nations have got no interest in Uhuru’s reign and cannot plot his downfall,” said Orengo.

He added: “Kenyans want good governance and failure to which, Kenyans might go the uprising way to force Uhuru and Ruto out of office.”

Machakos Senator Johstone Muthama accused the President of a plot to kill the political career of Raila to undermine his chances of becoming the next President of Kenya.

Muthama said that Jubilee administration had hoodwinked Kenyans that they are friends of the East like China yet when Kenyans are hard hit by terrorism attacks it is Israel, USA and UK that come to their aid.

Kajwang accused the Jubilee government of failing to contain illicit brews that killed over 90 people and left several others blind in one week.

He linked the killer deaths to the high cost of Senator-Keg, an alcoholic drink brewed by East African Breweries (EABL) for those with low income. “During President Mwai Kibaki and Raila’s tenure, they allowed the introduction of Senator-Keg, but when President Uhuru came in, he increased the taxes and forced Keg out of market because it’s too expensive. The VAT on the beer should be removed,” said Kajwang.

Additional reporting by kelvin Ngare